A team of the Condensed State Physics Unit (IRAMIS/SPEC – UMR 3680 CEA-CNRS) is coordinator of the 4 years (2017-2020) European project H2020 – FET Proactive * MAGENTA, which is launched on January 23, 2017. This € 5 million funded project brings together 10 European partners to open a new technological path in the search for magneto-thermoelectric materials and devices, optimized for residual heat recovery applications.
Recovering energy from low heat sources is an important way to produce locally usable and low-cost electric power. The current thermoelectric devices have very low yields and are of interest reserved to very specific applications (spatial notably).
The originality of the MAGENTA project is based on the recently discovered ability to convert thermal energy into electrical energy from ionic liquid based ferrofluids. These liquids are in the form of colloidal dispersions of magnetic nanoparticles in ionic liquids. Experimental and theoretical approaches will be used to study, from a fundamental point of view, the new magneto-thermoelectric phenomena in ferrofluids. The proposed numerical simulations will make it possible to refine the structure of the compounds in order to obtain the optimum conditions for energy recovery. The proposed revolutionary thermoelectric materials are versatile and non-toxic.The project is interdisciplinary and brings together physicists, chemists and electrochemists, with the active participation of 3 SMEs and 1 industrialist involved in the supply chain of materials, the design and evaluation of the performance of the device and market assessment. The objective is to give European companies, especially in the automotive and microelectronics sectors, the necessary know-how to develop a residual heat recovery full engineering.
The consortium, bringing together French, Italian, Greek, Swiss, Polish and British laboratories, is large enough to get an “innovative community” position able to support an innovation ecosystem around the new magneto-thermoelectric technology.
Device for studying the thermoelectricity of ferrofluids at SPEC/SPHYNX.
Diagram: Thermoelectric device allowing the recovery of electrical energy from low temperature differences between hot and cold thermal sources. The new ferrofluids studied in the H2020 – Fet Open Proactive project “MAGENTA” open an original way to achieve better yields for local and inexpensive heat recovery applications.
© CEA S. Nakamae.
Contact CEA: Sawako Nakamae (IRAMIS/SPEC/SPHYNX)
See: http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/206507_fr.html
*Future and Emerging Technologies activities (FET) help to create in Europe dynamic multi-disciplinary collaborations, for kick-starting new European research and innovation ecosystems around them. FET Proactive addresses promising directions for research on future technologies in order to build up a European critical mass of knowledge and excellence around them.
In 2016, 12 new FET Proactive projects defy the frontiers of innovation, including the “MAGENTA” project, coordinated by a CEA team, in the field of “New technologies for energy and functional materials”.
Collaborations :
Organismes de recherche :
- Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA)
- CNR- Istituto di Struttura della Materia (CNR)
- Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (PHNX)
- Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, NCSR “Demokritos”(NCSRD)
- Haute Ecole Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale (HES-SO)
- Gdansk University of Technology (GUT)
Industriels et PME :